I'll lend lots of support right here from my safe little home. You KNOW I'm terrified of bees.
So, your venturing into the attic with no lights on and trying to find the source? By yourself?, no dumb fall guy to throw in your path? lol
I at least hope you have an epi-pin (or ten) handy, just in case you may need them.
I'd just have to camp outside till I found someone to get rid of them. Good LUCK!!
[Show/Hide Quoted Message] (Quoting Message by guidogodoy from Wednesday, May 19, 2010 5:59:22 PM)| |  | guidogodoy wrote: | | Umm...recall that just finished replacing a ton of my cypress-sided home and just had it painted? Remember, this is an A-frame house. Ever try to pull off cypress trying to find a hive (unable to hear it like you can from the inside, mind you. In the heat of TN)? I guarantee, holes in sheetrock are much cheaper to repair than insulation, plywood, tar-paper, repainting, refinishing, a bee-suit, smoke cans and the possible injury of falling off a ladder AND a deck were you to actually FIND the hive. HAAAAA!! BTW, they usually swarm right at the face because of the air we exhale which startles people who are not used to dealing with bees. Nope, NOBODY attacks like that from the outside even if I didn't have all those other factors save for certain circumstances (a stucco wall, for example). This isn't one of them. Coming at from the inside by a non-trained person is risky but you are at least on solid footing and wouldn't risk cutting into a power line or stud with the proper detectors which wouldn't work from the outside as the wood is too thick. I do most of my own construction, as you can tell...
LOL!!! Now you know why I say that I now know more about bees than any non-professional should?  Gotta laugh or I'll cry.
Glad you liked the read too, K2M. It is a dilemma that IS the perfect storm. Tonight in as much darkness as possible (they fly right to light sources and often kill themselves by the hundreds banging themselves into windows when in a house (thus explaining why I found 30 in one day in this one-window room). Still pondering how they got INTO that room with door and windo closed, no holes in walls (they can fit through a single NAIL hole), I am thinking that the hive could be in the attic (remember...they always build from the highest point down) and came down through the ceilng fan, light or vent. A-frame house theory again. The studs could, in theory, go all the way to the top in a non-load bearing wall.
Wish me luck. If you don't hear the continuing tale tomorrow, you'll all know why. I fell through the ceiling trying to walk the joists in the dark! HAAAAA!!!!! (Quoting Message by spapad from Wednesday, May 19, 2010 4:07:26 PM)
| |
|
spapad wrote: |
| |
BEE SUITS and Smoke Cans!!! Work from the Outside. Leave inside alone until bees are gone. Just seems like common sense there.
Good luck my friend! I'll be lending lots of moral support miles away safely out of the range of the bees!  (Quoting Message by guidogodoy from Wednesday, May 19, 2010 12:15:58 PM)
| |
|
guidogodoy wrote: |
| |
Oh, I guarantee you...I am now a bee EXPERT! Having spent MANY days and nights going through bee webpages, forums, advice, calling beekeepers, I now know more than any living human should. Problem is, first, that I live in the boonies. Second, honey bees are the worst type of bee (and I even submitted specimens of them to insure that they were honey bees and not another variety) to have in a wall. Were they bees that make paper hives, you can leave it. Nope, THEY make..duh..honey! Next, once they get in the wall, you typically have to do a "tear-out" to find the hive. No good trying to simply kill them (and I can find many an idiot to spray the opening. Like you said, without getting rid of the queen and pupae, you get nothing but a bunch of rotting drones in the wall. If you don't do a cut-out involving finding the hotspot in the drywall where they have built the honeycomb (they start high, btw), even if you can plug the gap, poison them (surprisingly, soapy water kills them) and manage to kill the queen and babies (takes about three weeks for them to hatch), you are left with untended honey in a wall. Hot day, you guessed it, it breaks free, drips down the wall, invites rodents, cockroaches, ants and anything else that immediately picks up on an unattended hive.
FINALLY, to do a tear-out, you have to rip out the inside wall and hope the queen doesn't jump between another stud which is common when she senses danger. She abandons the hive and drones and takes a ball of soldiers with her and drops to the bottom between the studs either to the left or the right. Could be either. A carpenter (hard to get one) will NOT deal with a tear-out knowing that a swarm of live bees is there. A BEE-KEEPER usually doesn't want to do a tear-out as they usually find it not worth their time, effort and hassle.
Where does that leave a person? Between a rock (wall..heh) and a hard place!
Believe me, I have done my research. Thanks for the good wishes. I need them. To be continued.... (Quoting Message by HOT ROCKIN' METAL GODDESS from Wednesday, May 19, 2010 5:56:40 AM)
| |
|
HOT ROCKIN' METAL GODDESS wrote: |
| |
I know that you live far out with not much around you, but is there someone who can come and do a honey bee rescue? They find the queen and take her and then the rest of the hive follows. Pretty cool - but NOT MY KIND OF JOB! There are bee keepers who will also come and move the hive..... Just a thought, but I don't know if anyone around you can do it. They probably still charge for the service though, even though they get to keep the bees and sell the honey. What a pain! Couldn't they build it in a tree or something??? Good luck Guido and try not to get stung!
| |
|
guidogodoy wrote: |
| |
| Yeah, friggin' HONEY BEES in the wall!!!!!! Oh that is just great. All I needed.... |
|
Edited at: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 12:18:08 PM |
Edited at: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 4:09:41 PM |
Edited at: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 6:06:24 PM |
|
|
